Lightning Strike!

2 flowers

1 of my favorite pictures

I ran out of letters for the month, so here are some numbers ;-)

Z is for Zzzzzzz

Y is for Yellow

Yes, that's a little person in pink driving the big yellow tractor!

X is for X-ray

From Wikipedia,
Hand mit Ringen (Hand with Ring): print of Wilhelm Röntgen's first "medical" X-ray, of his wife's hand, taken on 22 December 1895 and presented to Professor Ludwig Zehnder of the Physik Institut, University of Freiburg, on 1 January 1896. The dark oval on the third finger is a shadow produced by her ring.

DD10 and I were fascinated by a study earlier this year of how Mr. Roentgen's experiments lead to the discovery of X-ray and its usefulness. This was our favorite picture.

More signs of spring :-)

The violets have popped out in my yard--literally around our feet!

Mom was working in the yard yesterday and she said there was one flower when she started, and she literally could watch them open around her as she worked. I love my spring violets! We have yellow, white, variegated, light purple, and dark purple. My shadbush (Juneberry) is also in full bloom--I have a beautiful view from my kitchen window :-)

And yesterday, I bought me a new broom. Not just any broom, mind you. This one!
It's a yellow/orange cheetah print. You should have heard all the comments I got in the store when people saw it and realized what it was. Come on, people, live a little bit. It's much more fun to sweep with a cheetah broom than a plain, ordinary old green one ;-)

W is for...W

Yea, I know, another letter in the ice. What can I say? They were beautiful, I took pictures, LOL.

V is for Very Silly

U is for Umbrella

T is for Thaw

These nuts thought it was warm out!

Spring Walk

We went for a walk this weekend and were pleasantly surprised to find spring wildflowers blooming already! That's early, for our neck of the woods :-) We were blessed by large stands of hepaticas

and lily of the valley. I'm anxious for the trillium and lady's slippers--those are my favorite spring flowers. Couple more weeks for those!

S is for Syrup

No blog would be complete without a picture of the spring maple syrup operation. That chimney is leaning quite a bit after a season of cooking. Guess those repairmen from yesterday's blog post will have to get out there and work on it when the weather gets better ;-)

R is for Repairmen

They're both cute. Especially the little one ;-)

Q is for Quad

P is for Peek!

O is for Ocean

Twas a cold and blustery day--but there we are, on the boardwalk in New Jersey!

N is for North

M is for mud

Yes, mud. Even dirty yucky mud can be beautiful--just check out these patterns left from winter and the ice.

L is for Lou E Loon

Isn't he the cutest bird you've ever seen? Lou E is the mascot for our local minor league baseball team, the Great Lakes Loons.

K is for Kids

Yep, I've got two. No, they don't live in Hawaii, no matter how they try to approximate the tropics ;-)

J is for Jeep

I is for Icy Feathers

Neat feathery patterns in the winter ice.

H is for Heart

This WAS filled with chocolate ;-)

G is for Great Lakes Ice Cream

One of our favorite places to enjoy something cold and refreshing.

F is for Flood

Spring pictures from a flood a year ago, which left interesting ice patterns as the water kept freezing and receding.

Homeschooling--A Look Forward

I’m wrapping up Home Education Week with a look forward. The time I have left to homeschool my kids is so short. Only 12 years left. What will I do with myself when it’s all over? Well, I’m sure I’ll suddenly rediscover large chunks of time that I used to have, and that have been swallowed up by learning with my kids. While I’ll miss mentoring my kids one-on-one, it will be fun to have time to clean my house (ick!) or re-enjoy some hobbies, such as quilting, cross-stitch, reading books that I want to read when I want to read them, yardwork puttering. I have a dream, too, that maybe I’ll do something interesting like develop and write curriculum, including something along the Music Appreciation lines.

More current and to the point, in our own homeschooling experience, I hope to relax even more than I already am. My box-checking tendencies tend to diminish as the years go by, but I still find myself pushing my kids too much. As I’ve told others, education is a lifelong prospect, not a sprint for the finish line. What they don’t learn at home with me, they’ll have plenty of opportunities to absorb as part of life.

The #1 thing I hope to instill in my children thru all of this is a love for Jesus and compassion for fellow human beings. Life in Eternity with my family at my side will be the ultimate “arrival” for us.

E is for Exporers

Don't they look ready to be off charting unknown territory?

D is for Dancing

Yes, in the van. They had music going ;-)

C is for Chopping Wood

My ds6 loves to help Poppa chop wood for the maple syrup fire. This is last year--haven't broken out the shorts and t-shirts yet this year ;-)

Thursday Creativity

I can't get to the Home Education Week site this morning, but my notes said to share some creativity, so here are photos of a couple of my creations.

I love to cook Here's how I made this Ridiculously Easy Lunchbox Enchilada Casserole. When I make one, I have to make two or my dh will not love me anymore. LOL, ok, j/k, but he likes to take one to work as well. We're talking the man who NEVER eats in the office. Ever!

I've dabbled in quilting, so here are a couple of things I've made:

A fall table runner

and a quilt for my daughter.

And I love doing digital scrapbooking. In fact, I have a blog of My Digi Scraps. Here are a couple of layouts I've done.

B is for butterfly

This picture was taken by my ds when he was still 5!

Recipe for Success

OK, Home Education Week participants. Here’s my recipe—Crockpot Spaghetti Monteray.

1 10-oz pkg frozen spinach
1 lb spaghetti
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
2-1/2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar or mozzarella are my choices)
1 can French fried onions
1 egg
¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Pepper

Bring water to boil and cook spaghetti and spinach. Drain and place in a large mixing bowl, along with remaining ingredients. You’ll need to reserve ½ cup shredded cheese and a handful of French fried onions for the topping. Mix well and place in your crockpot. Cook 4-5 hrs on low setting. ½ hr prior to serving, turn crockpot temperature to high and top with the reserved cheese and French fried onions. Delicious served with bread and a tossed salad.

And now, my recipe for our homeschooling day.

• Feed the beggar (aka as Cat) and fish (aka beggars)
• Refreshing shower, preferably in peace ;-)
• Spend time with God in devotions and prayer
• Often DS6 joins me midway thru devotions and reads his Bible book as well
• Healthy breakfast, including whole grain products and fresh fruit
• Preferably begin school by 10
• Be willing to move to a different part of the house—our outdoors—as desired (and as weather permits!)
• Lots of reading together and snuggling during the day
• Stimulating book discussions
• Lunch and wiggle breaks when appropriate
• Depending on the day’s agenda, we either stay in or go out for activities

We don’t follow a strict schedule, and we’re definitely open to last-minute change, or calls from Poppa (next door) to come look at something cool or come help with some interesting project that he’s involved in. After all, there’s lots of time to learn the things we need to know.

Some curriculum materials we use: Sonlight, Math-U-See, Singapore Math, Miquon Math, Explode the Code, Keys to…..[various math areas] and Good Language, Daily Language Review, Jump In, Wordsmith Apprentice, HWT, Critical Thinking Skills. Upcoming additions/changes for the next school year will include SOS Elementary Spanish, “Use It! Or Lose It” (daily language problems), and “Latin Everywhere, Everyday.” There might be more but I’m forgetting for the moment ;-)

April Fool's--the Challenges of Homeschooling

How punny. Principled Discovery’s Home Education Week challenge for today is to blog about my biggest challenge. A challenge for a challenge, I guess ;-)

Mine would be keeping a humble spirit. I’m always right. About everything. I don’t always want to always be right, but it’s so hard to squash that argumentive spirit and just walk away calmly. My tongue lashes so well. I don’t want to be that kind of wife and mother. I’m challenging myself to pray about my bad habits. God is the only help there is out there. I don’t need to create miserable days in my home—I really just need to focus on keeping those days at bay, replaced by pleasantness and love.

A is for Ambulance

Here's my first post for NaBlPoMo. The challenge for April is Letters, so i will be posting pictures for the alphabet.